Martens: Blast Breckenridge's icy buildup

Related Media

I am a former resident of Breckenridge and Frisco. I currently reside in Golden. I brought my girlfriend to Breckenridge for dinner on Sunday evening. We parked at the parking structure near Lincoln and Main and walked south to Main Street Station for dinner. So many times we had our heads down looking where we were going instead of looking at the stores or restaurants we were passing. There was so much snow and ice built up that many times we had to wait while groups of people passed so we could proceed walking single file. As I write this I wonder how many businesses we passed without giving a thought. How many other people of the thousands to hundreds of thousands of vacationers pass these businesses in the same manner. Heads down, looking for traction and hoping not to slip onto their butts. That is a lot of money these businesses are not receiving as a return on their investment. This also translates to lost tax revenue for the town of Breckenridge.

Where is the enforcement of snow removal from sidewalks? Is there an ordinance? The following is a copy from Golden’s city ordinance:

“It shall be unlawful for any owner/occupant of any lot, to fail to remove from any sidewalk accumulation of mud, ice and any accumulation of snowfall, more than one inch, no later than 24 hours after cessation.”

Why doesn’t the town of Breckenridge plow and clear the snow as Frisco does? Plowing the snow from the sidewalks into the parking spaces, then into the middle of the street where a front-end loader then fills a waiting truck. The snow is then dumped in a designated area so that it melts and drains into the Ten Mile Creek and into Dillon Reservoir.